594 



THE QUAGGA. 



The Kiang inhabits the high table-lands of its native country, and is wonderfully fleet and 

 active in traversing level or uneven ground. It is a rather large animal ; a full-sized adult 

 from Chinese Tartary measuring fourteen hands in height at the shoulder. It lives in little 

 troops of eight or ten in number, and is found in districts where the cold is most intense, the 

 thermometer falling below zero in the localities which are most frequented by them. As they 

 pass their lives in such a climate, they are necessarily furnished with warm, woolly coats, 

 which are of different color and thickness, according to the time of year. In the summer the 

 fur is short, smooth, and of a light reddish-brown, but in winter the hair becomes long and 

 rather woolly, and fades into a light gray brown. The legs too change the tinting, being straw- 

 colored in summer and whitish in winter. A broad black line is drawn along the back, but 

 there is no transverse band across the shoulders, nor are their young marked with zebra-like 

 stripes, as is the case with the young Dziggetai. 



3 



AFRICAN WILD ASS. Arintu tantopw. 



It is a swift and wary animal, fleeing in terror before the hunter, and yet stopping at 

 intervals to gaze on the object of its alarm. Unless the hunter is very sure of his aim, he will 

 not risk a shot, for the animals are so terrified by the report and the flash that they forget 

 their curiosity in their fear, and gallop away at the best of their speed, which soon carries 

 them out of danger. It is capable of domestication, and can be put in training like a horse or 

 a domestic ass. 



AFRICA produces some most beautiful examples of the Wild Asses, equalling the Asiatic 

 species in speed and beauty of form, and far surpassing them in richness of color and boldness 

 of marking. 



The QUAGGA looks at first sight like a cross between the common wild ass and the zebra, 

 as it only partially possesses the characteristic zebra-stripes, and is decorated merely upon the 

 hind and fore-parts of the body. The streaks are not so deep as they are in the zebra, and the 

 remainder of the body is brown, with the exception of the abdomen, legs, and part of the tail, 

 which are whitish-gray. The Quagga lives in large herds, and is much persecuted by the 

 natives of Southern Africa, who pursue it for the sake of its skin and its flesh, bf/th of which 

 are in high estimation. 



